Art of FightingReview

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Visually innovative, but lacking depth anywhere else.

By Lucas M. Thomas

The review of this product is based on a re-released version of the game. Because of this change of medium and the passage of time, it is possible that there are slight factual differences between the original retail product and the version reviewed. The following review should be used as a reference for how well the game stood up over time rather than an evaluation of how it would have scored based on its original release date.

South Town is one dangerous burg. As the setting for both this game and one of SNK's other fighting series, Fatal Fury, it's seen more than its share of violent street brawls over the years. Men fighting men, men fighting women, men fighting women dressed up like men... it's more, standard, violent street brawls in Art of Fighting, as its inclusion of a gender-confused female fighter named King is about as interesting an innovation as this game can offer.

South Town, for all its violence, just seems far too Spartan in Art of Fighting. You've got your eight selectable characters, with various special moves and horizontal health bars. And you've got your basic punches, kicks and throws. But the execution is much too simple -- one-hit attacks are exchanged one at a time between foes, with each assault draining more of each character's health meter than it seems it should, and combos are a rare event. Rounds are often over in only a handful of seconds, and not by any compliment to the skill of the player -- it's by lack of depth in the fighting engine.

Which one of these fighters do you think is actually a woman in disguise?

There are a few things Art of Fighting does that have hints of innovation, but they don't seem at all important; these inclusions are things like taunting opponents and its related spirit meter. Special moves like fireballs, spinning kicks and the like all rely on each character's SM (it appears just below the health bar), and can't be executed if it isn't appropriately full. Taunting is your means of draining an opponent's spirit, as enough finger-pointing and laughing in their face can render them spiritually inert.

Art of Fighting's character roster leaves something to be desired, especially so in single-player mode. There, you may only choose to be one of two different heroes. Fatal Fury was the same way, restricting the selection so the story would continue to make sense, but it's not much of a selection process when your decision of who to use could be made by flipping a coin. The full force of eight individuals are available when you take on a friend in a two-player match, but, again, after that match is over Art of Fighting sends the victorious player back to the select screen to again pick only Ryo or Robert to continue playing.

That's a fair amount of negatives leveled against Art of Fighting so far (and all of them deserved), but the game is not without its merits -- specifically its graphical presentation. This game introduced a unique and novel sprite scaling effect for its fighters, one that essentially "zooms" the camera in and out on the two active combatants as they got closer together or farther apart. Most other 2D fighters of the same era kept the traversable screen area locked at a constant all the time, delineated by invisible walls on either side of the arena. But Art of Fighting's areas are much more open.

This also means some impressive close-ups when the characters came into very close proximity with each other. They fill the majority of the screen when zoomed in as much as possible, and, additionally, some added details could be seen at that point. Characters take visible damage to their bodies and faces as fights progressed, so while both opponents start each match looking clean and healthy, toward the end both look bloodied and bruised. That's a nice touch that even fighting game developers today could learn from.

Art of Fighting

ART OF FIGHTING is a fighting contest for one or two players. With 10 different characters to choose from and fight against, you can challenge the computer or a friend.

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The Verdict

Visually, Art of Fighting has a few notable features that end up being important in SNK's overall growth as a fighting game developer. But, beyond that, the engine, characters and overall level of fun here is lacking. Other SNK fighters, like Samurai Shodown, which benefited from Art of Fighting's advances while offering much more original and interesting characters, moves and settings, is a great example. You've probably had enough of seeing South Town already if you're an SNK fan, anyway.